NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL-DETERMINATION OF INPLANE ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF 2 2 TWILL WEAVE FABRIC COMPOSITES/

This paper presents the in-plane elastic properties of 2/2 twill weave , T300 carbon/epoxy, woven fabric composite plates, obtained by both f inite element analysis and experiments. A micromechanical, three-dimen sional (3D) finite element model of the single layer unit cell of a 2/ 2 twill weave fabric composite is built, and a homogenization process is implemented. A unit cell is chosen such that it encloses the charac teristic periodic repeat pattern in the fabric weave. Detailed geometr y together with construction procedures for this new model are develop ed by using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL). In this respect, the scope for altering the weave and yarn parameters is facilitated. S tandard tensile and rail shear tests with modifications are performed for this kind of woven fabric composite. Elastic mechanical properties determined by experiments are presented, and the finite element model is verified. Satisfactory correlation between the predicted and exper imental results are obtained. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.